Title: This Is the Rope
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publication: 2013
Illustrator: James Ransome
Jacqueline Woodson is a brilliant author, and I had the pleasure of listening to her speak at the Author's Book Festival in Winston-Salem, NC. I bought this book, "This Is the Rope," from the event and will add it to my classroom library when I become a teacher.
Woodson begins the book with her author's note, which I would definitely read to my class when using this book in a lesson. She talks about how her family was part of the "Great Migration," which was when African-Americans moved up North during the 1900s to escape persecution, enslavement and discrimination.
Woodson uses the rope to depict the migration her family made from the South to Brooklyn, New York. She portrays the rope being used by multiple generations of her family and the different ways they use them to show the progression of time. As each generation uses the rope, they become more "at home" in the North. Woodson uses the rope to connect each generation together. The author also uses the repetition of "this is the rope" on each page to further emphasize the connection between them.
When I read this book, I could picture Jacqueline reading it out loud in her soothing voice. Woodson employs free verse, like she does in most of her books, to give the story a beautiful cadence and melody. She does a beautiful job creating a rhythmic element to her writing through the similar structure of her sentences and repetition. Additionally, the drawings are beautiful in this photo. They really capture the time periods in the photos, through the buildings, cars, magazines, music records and clothes. The illustrator James Ransome has won the Loretta Scott King Award, and it definitely shows.
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